Three former state superintendents of education in Indiana wrote a joint letter opposing the Republican plan to expand vouchers.
Jennifer McCormick, Glenda Ritz and Suellen Reed Goddard released a letter criticizing the proposals for diverting funding away from traditional public school students.
House Bill 1005 seeks to expand the eligibility of who can receive a school voucher and would create the “education scholarship program” to allow some families funding for education services outside of public school.
The House is expected to take up the bill for final vote Tuesday.
Reed Goddard took part in a virtual event Monday with the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, a non-profit organization that opposes legislation to fund private school vouchers. Goddard urged people to call their elected officials to oppose the House bill and other legislation.
“Now is not the time to divert any of our funding from public education where about 94% of our students are educated,” she said. “We are in the throes of a pandemic which challenges technology, teaching techniques, students and parents support and workforce issues.”
Goddard and others fear Gov. Eric Holcomb’s modest increase for K-12 funding in his two-year budget proposal will be erased by legislation expanded choice options if they become law.
Here is the text of the letter signed by the three former state chiefs:
An Opposition Letter from Public School Supporters
to Members of the Indiana General Assembly and Governor Holcomb
In support of the 94% of Indiana students who attend public schools, we strongly oppose House Bill 1005, Senate Bill 412 and Senate Bill 413. Education Scholarship Accounts will divert adequate and equitable funding away from public school students and open the door to unacceptable practices. Hoosiers all lose when children are not well educated and public tax dollars are not accounted for responsibly.
In Indiana communities, public schools have been and will continue to be the hub for vital services supporting the well-being of the whole child. Passing HB 1005, SB 412 or SB 413 would divert significant monies away from public schools, enhance the opportunity for a lack of oversight related to the intended educational purpose of such funds, further exacerbate insufficiencies tied to Indiana’s teacher compensation, and increase the risk to student growth, proficiency, and well-being.
Indiana’s most vulnerable youth and families deserve a per-pupil funding level that promotes adequate and equitable funding. Unfortunately, the language of HB 1005 gives advantages to families with high incomes and adds disadvantages for our most vulnerable by shifting risks. HB 1005, if passed, will defeat the spirit of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act and run counter to the initial rhetoric behind Indiana’s school choice.
Even with the amendment, HB 1005 would result in 94% of Indiana’s students receiving less than the tuition support increase of $377 million over two years that Gov. Holcomb’s proposed. Teacher compensation, support staff pay, COVID-19 academic and operational-related costs, student support service demands, constantly changing graduation and accountability requirements, and K-12 workforce development efforts certainly deserve the funding necessary to serve Hoosier students.
We firmly oppose HB 1005, SB 412 and SB 413. We firmly support the adequate and equitable funding of our Indiana’s public schools representing 94% of Hoosier students and families.
Dr. Suellen Reed Goddard
1993-2009 Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction
Glenda Ritz
2013-2017 Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction
Dr. Jennifer McCormick
2018-2021 Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The following organizations support this letter:
Indiana Coalition for Public Education
AFT Indiana
Indiana Association of Career and Technical Education Districts (IACTED)
Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (IACTE)
Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents
Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education (ICASE)
Indiana Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)
Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association
Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA)
Indiana Urban Schools Association
Can anyone explain why the Republicans in the legislature want to harm the public schools that enroll 94% of the children of the state? Did the Republicans familiarize themselves with the research on vouchers, which consistently finds a “significantly negative effect” on academic achievement for students who leave public schools for voucher schools? Why do they want to undermine the quality of their state’s public schools?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you, as always, Diane, for your attention to these ever-renewed attempts at destroying public education!
Just how much Whac-a-Mole do those who care about public schools have to play???!!!!
Bob,
Since Republicans made gains in many states in 2020, despite absurd claims of a “rigged” election, they have gone full speed ahead on school privatization in retry red state.
Why do Republicans hate public schools?
It’s totally bizarre, Diane, and so contrary to supposedly traditional Republican “values.” The Republican Party of today has been totally taken over by wackos.
“Improving public schools” was all a lie. There was never any intention to improve public schools. The end game was always what we’re seeing here- radical free market ideologically-driven restructuring to abolish public schools.
Ed reformers misled the public. We’ve wasted 20 years following their directives on public schools and they’re now privatizing the whole system anyway.
We were all tricked. It’s a betrayal of voters but it’s also a betrayal of every student who currently attends a public school. They never supported our kids.
The differences between the ed reform echo chamber and the DeVos agenda for public education are now so small as to be completely meaningless.
If you hire or elect one of these folks you are getting the DeVos recipe for privatization.
“David Osborne
Want to know how & why some schools pivoted quickly and effectively to remote learning, while others didn’t? Tune in our webinar on Feb. 24 at 1 pm EST.”
This is the level of “debate” you’ll see in the ed reform echo chamber.
No one from a public school is ever invited. No advocates for public schools are ever invited. They talk exclusively to other members of the echo chamber.
If you’re wondering who no one in state government lifts a finger for students who attend public schools, all you have to do is look at ed reform.
Another charter schools rah rah session where the people who promote charters get together to bash public schools and market their own schools.
David Osborne has been cheerleading for charters for 25 years.
Maybe we should pool money and hire this crowd sourcing lobbying group called “Lobbying for Good.” Public schools have no lobbyists. In a system that mainly responds to money, public school advocates are at a disadvantage.https://www.facebook.com/vicenews/videos/2708591119453587
As they say in Texas: fight ice with ice. Did you notice those ancients in the film l shaking hands?
Does public education not use lobbyists, at the federal, level, at the state level? If not, it should, as you suggest.
How could we raise money for lobbyists’ salaries? Or could massive letter writing make a dent sans lobbyists?
Explain the absolute necessity of public education, containing a unifying force for truth, rather than the probable distortion of facts to meet the demands of you-owe-it-to-me sponsors and benefactors of charter schools, taking precedence over adequate consideration of student or democracy’s needs.
Could we send copies of Diane’s and others’ books to relevant legislators?
Whatever we’re doing now, while winning a few battles, we’re losing the war, it seems to me.
A problem in allowing the rich to accumulate wealth beyond obscenity to competitive greed, is one of conferring faux wisdom on heads of unwise thumb-twirlers looking for something to do, such as dismantling public schools.
And now, God forbid, Bill Gates has taken over the fight against global warming. Let’s hope his failed experiment at attempting to influence education created an element of caution to guide him.
Most education policy is determined at the state level. To make a dent, parents and educators must bombard their representatives with visits, emails, letters, phone calls.
The Network for Public Education sends out alerts to activate friends of public education, but it’s up to you to follow through.
It a sad commentary on the state of politics in this country. Representatives respond to cash more than their constituents. Some of them are more interested in raising money for their war chest than serving the public.
Is there any chance of getting a regularly scheduled Network For Public Education program on PBS’s television programming?
Retired teacher
“It’s a sad comment” on the erosion of separation of church and state.
Paul Weyrich, funded by the Koch’s, proposed parallel schools to turn back the clock on secularism and collectivism. (Theocracy Watch) Unionization in religious schools is much lower. And, and the 2020 SCOTUS decision in the Biel case moots union protections.
Worth a read, “Newsweek, May 2020, “I’m an evangelical fighting for the Catholic school system”, by Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA.
“In support of the 94% of Indiana students who attend public schools,”
Oh, no one cares about them.We’re “reinventing” education!
The 94% of students in the unfashionable public school sector were once again ignored in favor of enacting the ed reform lobby’s ideological agenda.
It’s the same in Ohio, btw. We cannot get anyone in state government to perform any actual work on behalf of public school students. They contribute absolutely nothing.
We somehow ended up with an entire education establishment who do nothing but act as professional critics of public schools. There are thousands of them, 3 figure salaries, their job is to bash public schools and promote charters and private schools. They contribute absolutely nothing to 94% of students and families in the state.
Excellent points!!! I truly believe our legislators are attempting to totally destroy public education.
Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA explained in Newsweek, May, 2020, the goal of privatization which he connects to Christian values. He identifies personal accountability, freedom, God’s truth over that of the state’s, and rejection of collectivism (higher taxes and secularism) as the Christian agenda he’s fighting for.
His article’s title is , “I’m an evangelical fighting for the Catholic school system”.
The Indiana Catholic Conference site’s political policy agenda related to school choice is….
I just sent this to blockhead state Senator Niemeyer [R-IN] and Representative Slager [R-IN].
I asked them this question: Can you explain why the Republicans in the legislature want to harm the public schools that enroll 94% of the children of the state?
We are in the middle of the onslaught on public education occasioned by the Supreme Court’s decision in Espinoza v. Montana.
“Occasioned by” the Koch’s, way before Espinosa. Theocracy Watch provides info. about Paul Weyrich’s call for parallel schools. Weyrich and Brent Bozell III (his son was charged related to the Capitol riots)
are the subject of a 5-1-2007 paper, “Architects and Foot Soldiers: The Catholic Influence within the New Christian Right”. The paper’s author credits Bozell and Weyrich with creating “a religious conservatism”.
The right wing’s Charlie Kirk wrote in a Newsweek op ed, “I’m an evangelical fighting for the Catholic school system”. (5-1-2020)